


Cover Story

by Calamityjim



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28828773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calamityjim/pseuds/Calamityjim
Summary: Bruce gave Tim a fake internship to help with his cover for his nightlife. Bruce doesn't always think things through.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 13
Kudos: 293





	Cover Story

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Wayne Internship](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28817286) by [Sohotthateveryonedied](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sohotthateveryonedied/pseuds/Sohotthateveryonedied). 



> Hey. 2020 sucked. 2021 is still eh. I'm really struggling with writing anything right now which is why I haven't updated Expansion but I read The Wayne Internship by Sohotthateveryonedied and was struck by inspiration. Pure fluff, no angst, no TW needed (weird for me, ikr?) 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

“Tim, are you ready to go?”

“In a minute,” Tim muttered, his eyes focused with a steely intensity on the screen. “I need to complete this first.”

  
Bruce walked over to Tim and leaned over the boy’s shoulder so he could get a good look at Tim’s laptop and see what had him so enthralled that he was putting off patrolling. Bruce frowned, looking at the spreadsheet. “School sure has changed since I went,” Bruce muttered as he watched Tim flick through a multi-tab spreadsheet that had cross data formatting between the tabs.

“Not school,” Tim said absently, alternating between clicking and typing.

Bruce raised an eyebrow and stared at the top of Tim’s head. “A case?” It had better not be. All data relating to cases had to remain in the Batcave. It couldn’t be left lying around for a snoopy party goer to find. 

“Mm,” Tim hummed negatively. “Internship.”

  
  
Bruce’s other eyebrow jumped. “With who?” Tim hadn’t said anything and given that he was currently being Robin at night and Tim by day it wasn’t like the kid had any extra time.

Tim paused, twisting so he was looking straight up at Bruce. “With you?”

“Me,” Bruce said flatly.

“Yeah?”

Bruce crossed his arms. “The internship I gave you.”

“Yeah.” Well, at least this time Tim sounded sure about who he was interning with.

Bruce frowned. “The internship I gave you specifically to act as a cover for you to pursue your activities as Robin.”

Bruce watched as Tim hunched a little, his eyes sharp, thinking. It was a posture he adopted when he was certain that he’d committed a social faux pas and knew that someone was going to grind in what he had done.

God, Bruce hated the Drakes. 

“Yeah,” Tim nodded hesitantly. “That internship.”

“And,” Bruce stared at Tim, fighting to keep his face flat, “you are currently too busy to be Robin because of said internship.”

Tim’s ears turned scarlet. “It’s not like that,” he protested. 

Bruce wanted to slam his head against something. He settled for pleasantly asking, “What is it like?”

“Harold was running the numbers from Japan and he reformatted the document. The datas all there, but it needs to be shifted back so I just have to trace back what he did so I can get it fixed and emailed back to him because his boss needs the numbers by ten tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Bruce nodded. He supposed it wasn’t _that_ surprising that Tim actually did things for his cover to maintain it. He was willing to concede to the delay this time, but then Tim didn’t stop speaking. 

“I also need to finish digitizing all the R&D patents. They’ve mostly been uploaded but whoever has been running the department has been pretty disorganized, so everything needs to be filed. I’m debating between using dates versus using project names and haven’t decided which one is more advantageous. I need to fire an email off to Sheila to see if there is any form of standardization.”

Bruce stared down at Tim again. Tim, who looked up completely guilessly. “I also need to tweak the coffee order with that café down the way because Richard’s on a diet and has to cut back on his hazelnut syrup, but I think he’ll be back to his old order by the end of the week. I’m running the pot on that if you want in?”

Dear Lord, help Bruce with this child. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. 

“Bruce?” Tim asked timidly. 

“Tim,” Bruce echoed back flatly. He sighed and give Tim the Look. He didn’t know what the Look looked like, but Dick had once described it as Bruce looking both like he was at his most Daddest while also on the verge of snapping Joker style. “The internship is supposed to be _fake._ ”

Tim squirmed. “Ah...It’s good practice for undercover?”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve been patrolling every night.”

Tim reflected Bruce’s expression. “Yes.”

“And going to school. Cutting class?”

“Only cutting to do Robin stuff,” Tim responded snidely. Bruce let it pass. Tim was touchy about being accused of shirking responsibility. 

He did pin Tim with his best I Will Know If You Are Lying To Me look. “When have you been sleeping?”

Tim flinched. Only for a second and subtly enough that only someone who knew him would notice. He then smiled and rolled his eyes playfully. “At night,” he responded like he wasn’t lying straight to The World’s Greatest Detective’s face. 

“Uh huh.” Bruce made sure his tone conveyed just how unconvinced he was. “When was the last time you drank something that wasn’t coffee?”

“Breakfast,” Tim responded immediately. 

Bruce wanted to pinch his nose again. “I poured you your coffee this morning.”

“Who said today’s breakfast?” Tim said with enough cheek that Bruce knew he’d been spending too much time with Dick. 

With a heavy sigh Bruce bent down.

“Bruce? Bruce! What are you doing??”

Drawing upon the experience and muscles that came with being a vigilante, Bruce wrapped an arm around Tim and lifted. The boy was too surprised to struggled and ended up flopping into the fireman's hold. With Tim securely tossed over his shoulder, Bruce closed the laptop. “And it’s off to bed you go.”

“This is humiliating,” Tim grumbled as he dangled helplessly. 

“Good,” Bruce said jovially. “Then you will remember this the next time you start treating your cover like your job.”

Tim huffed, staying limp over Bruce’s shoulder. Bruce took it as permission to toss him onto the bed. Tim landed with a bounce and a grumble. 

“Now, sleep,” Bruce ordered sternly as he gently folded Tim into his blankets. 

“No, you sleep,” Tim muttered back, his breathing already mellowing out. 

With a fond sigh Bruce left the room and closed the door, leaning against it as he closed his eyes and rested the back of his skull against the wood. So it looked like Gotham was not going to wake up to Batman’s latest escapades. 

But Wayne Enterprise was going to be greeting the dawn with some strongly worded emails telling employees to get their own damn interns. 

His was busy.

  
  



End file.
